The relationship between addiction to internet and adolescence’s tendency toward opposite sex, sexual behaviors, alcohol, aggression, chatting and hacking

Background: Given the importance of adolescent period and impact of internet and virtual communication tools on high risk behaviors, this research was conducted to examine the relationship between addiction to internet and adolescent’s tendency toward opposite sex, sexual behaviors, alcohol, aggression, chatting and hacking.

Methods: The population of this study included all (n=40597) junior and senior high school students (boys and girls)   in academic year 2014-2015 in Ardabil, Iran. 380 subjects were selected as the study sample by multistage cluster sampling. The instruments for data collection in this research were addiction to internet questionnaire, Iranian adolescent's risk-taking scale and the researcher-made tendency to chat and hacking questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS-22 software using correlation coefficient and simultaneous regression analysis.

Results: The results showed a significantly positive correlation between addiction to internet and sexual behavior, tendency toward opposite sex, aggression, chatting and hacking (P<0.001), but there was no significant relationship between addiction to internet and alcohol.

Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that addiction to internet was able to significantly predict sexual behavior, tendency toward opposite sex, aggression, chatting and hacking.